Its crunch time in Austin

by Jeff Wentworth
State Senator District 25
Published: 05-14-07
 
Lights are staying on late in the Texas State Capitol as we legislators work to pass our bills or kill bad ones before the 80th Legislature adjourns on May 28.

Conference committee members are among those burning the midnight oil while they reconcile differences between the Senate’s and the House of Representatives’ versions of bills.

When a bill passes the Senate and is sent to the House of Representatives for a vote the bill’s author hopes it will make it through a committee review and the voting process without being amended.  Many bills are approved by both chambers and make it to the Governor’s desk without being amended but many do not.

Two things may happen when one legislative chamber amends the other’s bill.  The bill’s author may approve of the amendment and ask members of the House or Senate to concur or the author may request the appointment of a conference committee comprised of five senators and five representatives.          

These 10 conferees may not change or omit parts of a bill that are the same in both House and Senate versions nor may they add language not found in either version.  Other restrictions apply for appropriations taxation redistricting and recodification bills.

After the committee reaches an agreement the report is submitted to both the Senate and the House of Representatives for approval.  The report must be accepted or rejected in its entirety and may not be amended.

If the compromise is not acceptable to one or both chambers the conference committee may continue to deliberate.  Either chamber may make specific suggestions for consideration or even (this rarely ever happens) request that a new committee be appointed.

If the conference committee fails to reach an agreement the bill dies.  If the report is acceptable to both the Senate and the House of Representatives the bill is sent to the Governor.

Currently one of my bills Senate Bill 593 has been referred to a conference committee.  My bill would make it more difficult for executors of estates to steal from or mismanage the estates they have been chosen to administer.

I believe that the two versions of Senate Bill 593 will be reconciled in the conference committee and accepted by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile a conference committee is attempting to reconcile the differences in the Senate and House versions of the appropriations bill.  The appropriations bill is the one bill that cannot be allowed to die in conference committee.

The Texas Constitution requires that the Legislature must pass a balanced budget and is the only bill that we simply must pass if Texas state government is to operate.

The conferees’ version of the appropriations bill must be approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate.  If the conference committee agreement or approval of one or both chambers’ version is slow in coming Capitol lights could be burning all night every night until May 28.